Mariano "Bean" Ayala, President of Brownsville Convention & Visitors Bureau, Shares Documents on Contribution

Mariano "Bean" Ayala

Last month we did an article detailing the financing and dispersal of funds associated with Mayor Martinez' "State of the City" event held May 14 at the Brownsville Event Center.  Prompting the article was the false claim by the mayor that the event was funded solely by private funds.

Martinez was responding to a Brownsville Herald reporter about his decision to use an outside firm, Message, Audience, Presentation, Inc. M.A.P. of Austin, to run the event:  "He said that since the money for the State of the City event was privately raised, he saw no issue with spending the money with the same consultant firm that helped him win his office, explaining that based on practices he has observed in other areas, the event is typically planned wholly at the mayor’s discretion."

Taking the mayor at his word that other mayors organize similar events as they wish, research showed that what the he said about the event's funding being solely private, not public monies was simply not true.  We identified $18,650 contributed to the "State of the City" event from taxpayer, ratepayer and tuition payer monies.  While we did not include the $4,000 contributed to Tony's event from the United Way or the $500 contributed from the Brownsville Convention & Visitors Bureau in that total, we did question the propriety of a charity and tourism bureau funding this event.(Traci Wickett, CEO of United Way of Southern Cameron County, explains her groups's participation here:  http://meanmisterbrownsville.blogspot.com/2013/08/traci-wickett-ceo-of-united-way-of_26.html)

The day after our article, we received a call from Mariano "Bean Ayala, the President of the Brownsville Convention & Visitor's Bureau.  Ayala wanted to clarify that the source of the bureau's contribution was not the hotel and restaurant tax that funds the agency, but from ad revenue generated from the Visitor's Guide distributed to motels, hotels and restaurants in the city.(Ayala's explanation can be found here:  http://meanmisterbrownsville.blogspot.com/2013/08/director-mariano-bean-ayala-clarifies_24.html)

The thrust of Mr. Ayala's explanation was that the $500 spent to help fund the Mayor's "State of the City" event did not come from the hotel and restaurant tax funding the overall operations of the Convention & Visitors Bureau, but from ad revenue is documented in materials received through an Open Records request with the city.

The "Sponsorship Expense" represents the Convention & Visitors Bureau's contribution to Tony" "State of the City" Event.  As Ayala stated on the phone, the sale of ad revenue did not generate a profit for the visitor's guide.  Below is a copy of the check.

Mr. Ayala was, as always, gracious and cooperative in sharing these documents.  Playing the devil's advocate, however, it can be questioned whether or not the Mayor's "State of the City" event generated tourism or visitors to the City of Brownsville.  Did out-of-towners venture to the city, staying in a hotel or motel for the event?  Not likely.  Actually, all of the individual tickets sold were to Brownsville residents.  Is it likely that those attending the event went out to dine at a local restaurant after eating a meal costing $9411.60 to cater?  So, its hard to justify this contribution from the Convention & Visitor's Bureau based on the work of the agency to promote tourism and visitors to the city, but it was made at the discretion of Mr. Ayala for his reasons.

As for the numbers above, exclusively for the visitors guide, not the "hot fund" generated from hotel and restaurant tax, the first eight months of fiscal year 2013 ending May 31, 2013, show a net loss for the visitors guide of $6,616.11.  That includes the $500 to support Tony's event.  In other words, even though this contribution was listed as an expense in the production costs of the guide, it was actually money the Convention & Visitor's Bureau did not have to spend.  There is no indication the check, made out to the City of Brownsville Finance Department bounced.  Since it did not, does that mean the shortfall in the visitor guide fund was made up by the so-called "hot fund" of hotel and restaurant tax?  If that is the case, the $500 can be added to the already discovered $18,650 of taxpayer, ratepayer and tuition payer funds used in Tony's self-promoting event.

Ayala submitted yet another document detailing the financials for the month of May, the month of the "State of the City" event.  Those figures show a net loss of $472.47 for May including the $500 to Tony's meeting. So, without that contribution, the bureau would actually have had a surplus of $27.53 for the month.

As for the beautifully illustrated Visitors Guide 2012-13, it is essentially out of date.  All of the dated events are past, Charro Days, February 24-March 3, 2013, as well as the nine UTB Signature Series that ran from September 20, 2012 through April 27, 2013 are all past history.

"Yes, we're working right now on the 2013-14 Visitors Guide," explained Ayala.